SN Social Sciences

While in the past the concept of resilience was used to explain psychological well-being in extreme situations like enduring poverty, abuse, or war, it has now found broad application in numerous fields of research. It can also be applied to examine how everyday challenges and problems are dealt with, for example in the educational and university context. This raises the question of whether resilience and academic success are correlated. Using German longitudinal data including university and university of applied sciences students in their first four years (2010–2015) we investigate how resilience and various measurements of success (satisfaction, intention to drop out, grades) are correlated using multilevel growth-curve models. We demonstrate that resilient individuals have consistently more positive academic trajectories, have lower dropout intentions, report better grades and are more satisfied with their lives. The effects are exceptionally stable over time, statistically highly significant and of considerable magnitude. This demonstrates that resilience is associated with better outcomes in university students under control of a large number of potential confounding factors and influences.

Urban sprawl has been widely discussed in regard of its economic, political, social and environmental impacts. Consequently, several planning policies have been placed to stop—or at least restrain—sprawling development. However, most of these policies have not been successful at all as anti-sprawl policies partially address only a few determinants of a multifaceted phenomenon. This includes processes of extended suburbanisation, peri-urbanisation and transformation of fringe/belt areas of city-regions. Using as a case study the capital city of Chile—Santiago—thirteen determinantsof urban sprawl are identified as interlinked at the point of defining Santiago's sprawling geography as a distinctive space that deserves planning and policy approaches in its own right. Unpacking these determinants and the policy context within which they operate is important to better inform the design and implementation of more comprehensive policy frameworks to manage urban sprawl and its impacts.